Archive for the “stripey striped scarf” Category

This, my friends, is what is known as a Very Silly Picture. This is me, dancing like a fool, at Winterlude this past February. Friend Patrick, who is a very good photographer indeed, took the shot while I was being ridiculous in the park for the amusement of those around me. Fortunately, more people were looking at the ice sculptures than at me, or I might have been photographed whilst blushing bright red.

The great part about this picture, at least for the purposes of this blog, is that I am covered in handknits. The Winterlude Hat(tm), the Stripey Striped Scarf, the Fleeps... and, though you can't see them, I believe I was wearing handknit socks at the time. And the picture wasn't taken to show off any of those things. No, it's just a candid shot of me, wearing lots of things I knit myself. And one thing I spun and then knit, which shows up surprisingly well in pictures even if the contrast is a little dim in person.

I'd like to have enough handknit (or crocheted) stuff that all my friends' photo albums have pictures of me wearing stuff I made myself. It would also count if I learned to sew and was photographed wearing clothing I'd sewn. That's next on the list - once the craft room is set up, I'll have a place for the sewing machine and can re-familiarize myself with its ways. I have a simple skirt in my wardrobe that I'd love to be able to duplicate. After that, who knows where my skills might branch out?

Not a single stitch. I was having too much fun visiting family, eating a ridiculous amount of food, joining good conversations, and, well, having no need to hide in a corner with yarn.

However, I did discover that my cousin Sara knits, and we had a good laugh over our matching Stripey Striped Scarves. Seems that we used at least two of the same colorways, which is pretty funny. I got to show off the Fleep-Tops, too, because it was cold enough to require gloves at night.

But now that I'm home, and I have the whole day ahead of me to spend as I wish, I think I will spend at least some of it with yarn.

I feel like such a dork saying it, but omg! people are making the armwarmers! I saw someone on the LJ knitting community recommending them, and someone on a UK knitting forum did the same, and someone on Ravelry has cast on for the pattern too! I should probably relax a little bit, but I can't help squeeing just a little!

It's still not cool enough to wear the Stripey Striped Scarf, but I'm sure it will be soon! I'll try to get some pictures of its public debut, possibly under the trees which are just now starting to turn pretty colors.

My wrists have been hurting, so I've been trying to knit and type a little less. This is frustrating, but I'd rather take a few days off knitting than have to take a month off after I really overdo it.

And lastly, I know this isn't exactly knitting-related, but in about ten minutes the realtor is going to pick us up and take us to see our first bunch of houses. I'm *so* excited!

Last night I finally finished the Stripey Striped Scarf! I could have kept going; there are three smallish balls of Kureyon left over. I might make a Stripey Striped Hat of them, but the scarf was definitely long enough. I didn't measure - it's well over six feet, quite a bit taller than me! I tried to get good pictures:

Here we have the by-now-infamous stripey striped scarf, hurtling towards completion. I may have already mentioned that there's 12-15 inches of scarf left to knit. It was up in the 90s yesterday (that's 'hot', for you Canadians) so it's nowhere near time to be wearing warm wool scarves... still, I'm looking forward to having it done. At the same time, I will miss the fun of seeing what colors come next and how they play out against each other. Maybe I'll have to do something stripy again soon.

As my wrists allow, I've been working on carding the green roving. I thought it would never end, but I finished off the last of it after taking this picture. Pirate-Husband helped some, which surprised me a little, but he said he found it to be relaxing and meditative. Maybe I can get him to card for me in the future? I took a cardboard box, lined it with a black plastic bag, and put all the rolags in it. It's full to the top, so it's a good thing I'm out of wool that needs to be carded! Next up is, of course, the Eight Pounds of Alpaca - but I think I'm going to hold off on carding that until I've spun some of what I've already got. First, the roving from MD Sheep & Wool. I think that would be the best to practice on. Then, the green stuff... and THEN the alpaca.

There in the sidebar, thanks to Casey over at Ravelry, is now a neat little thingie (yes, that's a technical term, 'thingie') which shows my current WIPs and their progress. It also links back to the project page on Ravelry, but unless you have an account, you won't be able to see that yet.

I gotta say, even though the site is still in beta, I'm absolutely loving it. There's an incredible feel of community over there. Eleven people have queued up the armwarmers pattern. It's so cool that I'm able to see that! I can't wait for people to start knitting it so I can see the different projects.

Last night, between re-installing my printer (don't ask) and poking at the html and css on the blog, I put another few inches onto the Stripey Striped Scarf. It's got about another 12 or 15 inches, and then it will be DONE! I'm sure I can get quite a bit of it done at SnB tomorrow night. And then... then I can start something new again! Whee!

It is too dark now to take pictures and have any color accuracy, so you're just going to have to take my word for it...

I wound up the next (fifth) ball, the one with the beginning that closely matches the end of the knotted (third) ball. The outside, which is now the end, is nicely purple. While I had the ball-winder going, and since I'm so close to needing it anyway, I wound up the last (sixth) ball. Amazingly, its beginning end also matches the end of the knotted (third) ball!

The nicely purple end of the fifth ball goes fairly well with the nicely purple end of the fourth ball... so I'm going to re-wind the fifth ball so that the purple end is now the purple beginning. I can't believe how well this is working out, considering how randomly I picked these balls of yarn!

I proofread this before posting to make sure I had all the balls of yarn right. Hopefully it's not too confusing, and you can follow along. I'll try to get color-accurate pictures when there's some daylight!

Here we see the Stripey Striped Scarf, moving past the salmon and sugar snap peas into the blue of night and the pale grass of morning. I am loving this scarf. It's mindless knitting. It's going to look so good when it's done. It's... what's this? What the heck has happened to my yarn? There is a knot. In my Kureyon (third ball). What happened to my slow gradual color change? This goes "green green green KNOT pink pink"! That's not right at all! Augh! What to do? I briefly consider that I have about two feet of green before the knot; I can untie it and gradually felt the pink in. That will mimic the color shift, right? Of course. No panicking. I get ready to felt.

Then I realize that the next (fifth) ball might have a matching section. I pull it out of the basket and stare. The shade of green just before the knot in the first (third) ball is so very close to the shade of green which begins the next (fifth) ball, though they are totally different colorways. This is just too cool! The scarf is already almost 45" long, and the next two balls (fifth and sixth) plus the as-yet un-knotted bit of the fourth ball should bring it well up over 72" unblocked (or, IMO, the perfect length for a scarf). I'm not going to worry about the non-matching end of the third ball of yarn. After all, it had one knot - how can I trust the rest of it?

Color shifting saved, I am going to go wind up the next (fifth) ball of yarn. This is just awesome.

Two days in a row, I've come home from work and been sucked into the glory that is the Stripey Striped Scarf. "Just a few rows," I tell myself, "to see what the next colors will be. Just a few more rows before dinner." Right now, pale pink is playing off of a beautiful fresh green. Was it coincidence that tonight's dinner was salmon and sugar snap peas? Perhaps not.

This is just a few ounces of the eight *pounds* of fleece currently awaiting rotation through the freezer. I am thrilled to have it; I just need to decide what to make! Alpaca mittens would be nice, or maybe those fingerless gloves I keep thinking of - or maybe convertible fingerless glove mittens! Yeah!

Unfortunately, pictures of this green roving don't do the color justice at all, though I tried and tried. I found two bags of the same color, but they were obviously two different dye lots, so I'm going to card them together and split the difference. It's very tightly compressed right now and feels a little bit rough. Originally I was thinking of making a hat with it. If it still feels rough when I card it, I might have to change that idea, or make a lining so it's not too itchy on my head. Here's an older picture of me, from two years ago, but there are my eyes... and there is this roving. It's incredible. I've never found anything this color before, so if I'm ranting a little, please forgive me!

Another thing I bought at Pennsic is this cobweb-weight silk/cashmere blend. It's the same as the coppery brown stuff I already have, and bought from the same person. She says she keeps this and several other colors in stock, or I'd've been tempted to purchase two spools of purple as well. it's amazingly fine. I spent a long time in front of the tent just admiring the different colors and gently touching the yarn.When Pirate-Husband picks out a pattern of lace that he likes, I'll put the project in my Ravelry queue. I'm certain that I will be able to make two cuffs for him by next Pennsic. If I make it three times the circumference of his wrist, it should ruffle nicely from the cuff of his shirt and look really spiff!

Speaking of lace, here is the Ostrich Plumes progress, gently pinned out this time so the pattern shows up better. I'm still not sure how long I should be making this, but I'm developing a reputation for dressing however I please and still pulling off the look - so I'm confident that it will look good whether it's short or long. I'll just wrap it around my neck and go. How could it be bad?

The Stripey Striped Scarf ought to be finished before autumn, since I really want to wear it with my gray coat. I am so pleased with the way the colors are playing out! It doesn't seem like it should work, then for some reason it does. It may sound egotistical to say this, but I'm going to say it anyway: one of my motivations for finishing the scarf is to hear other people's reactions to it when I wear it.

And now, the Jaywalker. By some miracle, I got the second sock to start in almost the first place as the first sock. I think the color is only off by two rows. I'm going to start the heel in the same place so that matches, because no one will notice if my socks are an eighth of an inch different in height, even me, especially if they slouch a little. I love that the tip of the toe and the tip of the heel have that tiny little bit of light blue in there. If both socks have that, I shall be very pleased indeed! Once the Jaywalkers are done, I'm going to go back to the Pomatomus sock and make a mate for it. After that... well, I really want to start designing my own socks. I've been really inspired by the patterns that Wendy has been coming up with during the Summer of Socks, and I've had some great ideas (at least, I think they're great) for patterns of my own.

And I decided not to take any pictures of the Ninja's Sekrit Yarn Gift. She's just going to have to wait until I see her in person!